1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a character recognition technology that converts the character image data included in image data into character code data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Using conventional character recognition technology via a conventional optical character recognition (OCR) device, if the document comprises text images only, a 99.5% recognition rate has been attained.
However, where the document includes other types of images such as drawings and photos, part of the drawings or photos (particularly the edges) may be erroneously regarded as characters, and as a result the recognition rate decreases significantly. In particular, where characters and a drawing or a photo are close together, part of the drawing or photo may be regarded as characters.
An object of the present invention is to resolve the above problem.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an OCR device and method that can prevent erroneous character recognition regarding images that include characters, as well as a recording medium.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an OCR device and method that improve the recognition rate by using color information during the optical character recognition regarding a color document comprising character images and other types of images, as well as a recording medium.
These and other objects are attained by an image processor having an obtaining unit that obtains image data that corresponds to the image including character images and other types of images, an extracting unit that extracts the character images from the image data, an detecting unit that checks whether a color change exists in the extracted images based on the extracted image data, and a generating unit that generates character code data based on the image data for the images as to which there is no color change.
The invention itself, together with further objects and attendant advantages, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.